Basic stereo/speaker upgrade?

[digity]

Ok, wanna to do basic upgrade with 6x9s in rear and 6" in drs. I know I need spacers up front as I have electric windows. Also, have read about plug n play harness. Two main questions, can I get enough amps to push good quality speakers and is it necessary or recomended to upgrade speaker wires for this kind of set up.

 

[K85 Octane]

A simple small 50x4 channel amp tucked away someplace safe would be nice for a system you're describing. The speaker wire could go up to a 14 or 12 I think. But quality wire is key.

Also, if you put them in the doors make sure everything is tight (EX: screws, linkages, etc) All that stuff will rattle and make your music sounds like garbage. I little dynomat, fatmat, etc behind the speaker and around the mounting area will help.

 

[blazinzuk]

Any cheap upgrade is usually going to sound like that.

For cheap help in the doors go get a roll of that roofing material they use to put behind the speaker, I have built small enclosures for 6x9s before, the enclosures help with bass quite a bit. Especially if you can find the speakers specs.

Look at scratch and dent sales from Crutchfield closeouts too. An inexpensive amp can be had that is still good quality.

Buy the best you can on the budget you have and an amp will help tremendously

 

[shady]

www.onlinecarstereo.com and any headuint with a mosfet power supply (all kenwood, some pioneer, eclipse, ??) will push 6x9s just fine. they have the same internals as a seperate amp. If the headunit does not say mosfet somewhere in the specs it will have crappy true power output nomatter how many watts it says it is. And for what it sounds like you want the factory wire is more than fine.

 

[digity]

Cool, thx guys. Shady, what does mosfet pwr supply mean.

 

[shady]

its a type of transistor they use for the amplifier. they are larger and smoother operating. basically it allows the deck to handle the large power draws of the speaker better. resulting in better bass, cleaner sound, and less clipping at high volume. you can look at the max and RMS power output. if it is a mosfet the RMS out put will be about half of the max output. a non mosfet deck will tell you 50 watts max and really only put out a clean 12-13. a mosfet deck will tell you 50 and will push a very clean 22-25. my old sound quality competition setup had 2 6x9's, and 2 6.5's running off of just a kenwood deck no amp. and 2 15's running on a 3000 watt amp. all of it was exreamly loud and prefectly clear. I didnt need an amp for the mids and highs to keep up with the bass.

 

[digity]

Sweet, great info. This will be my first stereo install and want to keep it simple with some fairly good sound. Thanks again.

 

[K85 Octane]

since we are on the subject of headunit power, I'm hoping you, Shady, can answer something for me.

I bought a Panasonic headunit about 5-6 years ago, maybe more, but under 8 lol. The headunit is still in my DD and running strong. It is the CQ-C9800U and came with F/R/Sub amp outputs and AUX RCA input. The amp outputs are IIRC 4v. Cost me either $399 or $499, can't remember. Anyway, they only made this headunit for a couple months and then sold the 9900U. Mine is 4x70w max and 4x60w RMS. That's not a typo, 60w RMS and it sounds really good @ high volumes. The 9900U came out with color screen but only 50w RMS and from there it went down hill. I haven't seen another headunit that claimed those numbers, not even from Panasonic anymore.

I'm sure it's just easier to run a head unit and have an external amp do the work, just thought it was interesting the way things went. It's a lot cleaner for me (small cab) to have all the power just come from the headunit. Only had room for the sub's amp.

 

[shady]

Most started going away from large internal amps so they could make room for all the bells and whistles we have today. Most of them things create heat as they are used and dashes are getting tighter and more compact. Plus the deck its self is jammed full of circuits and such. The way its figured is that anyone that wants that much power will probably get an external amp so they didnt need to build it in anymore. Some high end decks dont even have an internal amp anymore. They are rca output only. This make more room for all the features we see today. Plus lets the deck stay cooler during use.